Why do we think in a particular way ? How does collective ideas reap from independent events or from an individual’s thought processes that leads to sync ? And what is Collective Unconscious ?

The spark that ignited the writer in me to put a post on collective unconsciousness is seeing how people were connected with a common thought process or ideology coincidentally and how certain events sync with our thoughts.

^{Image Credits: Sony Entertainment}

To understand the concept of synchronicity we need to zoom out a bit. It is obvious that the we share certain values and beliefs in a society due to the rules and norms we live by. And this is exactly what Emile Durkheim a prominent sociologist’s ideology convey, the collection of subjective and intangible entities, including the social norms connected to them, are cemented in our social institutions and thus create a common ground from which we base certain thought process.

But I feel that this is not it, there’s a whole lot to uncover, in the later part of the post we will understand a crucial explanation from a psychology perspective (Collective Unconsciousness). It is convincing to comprehend that we are influenced by the subjective concepts around us, and thus certain humanly made events synchronise or we think in a same way. Have you ever thought of what could be the scientific explanation behind all the theories, myths and stories ?

If you have already given this a thought or this intro has made you curious, you are in the right page. In this post we will be delving into some mind-blowing concepts that explain collective consciousness and synchronicity.

There is a very interesting concept that I came across when exploring new perspectives, it could be kind of mythical or just a story that is made up from hindsight, but when we have a good picture of human evolution and understanding of our brain, then this theory which we are going to see would make a lot more sense than ever.

Before we dive into the concepts that forms a basis of collective consciousness and similarity in people’s thought process, we need to have a basic idea of what differentiates the mind from the brain, and how the mind functions and creates new ideas or memories.

The human brain is a fascinating objective entity that is made up of millions of neurons interconnected with each other. A thought is generated or processed in our mind when a certain set of neural networks fire collectively, this is what is called activation due to exhibitory connections. These connections enable us to think, solve problems and create new perspectives.

The other connection that stops the thought process, or basically connections that inhibit the firing of neurons in the network is known as inhibitory connections. It is intuitive to question the need for the inhibitory framework, the answer is simple, it is like the brake in a automobile. The dynamics of the road with traffic, with turns and speed breakers require the vehicle to stop at certain places so that the entire system performs smoothly. Our brain need rest at certain times, we won’t let certain thoughts consume us. So this where those connections are required.

From a birds eye perspective, this is what forms the mind from my understanding. Mind is the collective operation of networks in our brain(each represent a specific purpose), the types of connections between them, the neuro-chemicals that operate in each network (such as endorphins and dopamine is related to happiness, oxytocin – bonding, serotonin- state of calmness and stability, etc) and the sensory inputs that feed these networks.

A network can also be defined as neural population or a mental model. Each model contains a topographical sensory map, which basically represents a specific sensory information in an organised manner within the nervous system. Our nervous system processes biologically important information through computations. Some of these computations are carried out in the form of topographical maps.

Topographical maps are nothing but a framework that organises the sensory information in the nervous system by grouping together neurons that respond to similar features, allowing for efficient processing and interpretation of sensory input.

For examples: topographical maps include visual maps for line orientation and motion direction, auditory maps for amplitude spectrum and time intervals, and motor maps for controlling movements.

These topographical maps keeps changing constantly through a neurological process called the neuro-plasticity, where certain neural circuits alter to align with our current belief systems and learnings from new ideologies.

Now that you have a decent understanding of how the brain encapsulates the mind, and how the mind is created and functioned. Let’s get into the core of this post, which is influence of collective unconsciousness in synchronisation.

Have you ever experienced seeing unrelated and independent events happening simultaneously, when inspected closely, some cases will reveal certain aspects and purpose of those events happening together in sync.

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The concept of synchronisation is closely associated with collective unconscious. According to Carl Jung a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, collective unconscious is the “representation of the unconscious mind which manifests the universal themes that run through human life”. It could be a little overwhelming to take this sentence, lets understand it word by word.

The unconscious mind is believed as the shadow of the conscious mind, it basically contains memories and instances that are not yet available to the conscious self, but it manifests the conscious and its reflection can be seen from one’s personality/ character or behaviour.

For instance, they would not consciously know that an aspect is influencing them, but they depict it unknowingly as it becomes a part of their self and they don’t need to remember it constantly. A good example would be a person’s handwriting, which they would have inherited from ancestors, or acquired it from a universal theme, or built due to some experiences and learning in their early stages of life, which later goes unconscious and automatically the behavior continues to live in them. Another example would be a person’s voice modulation as well.

It is important to emphasise that collective unconscious is not a concept arising from one’s personal experience. Because personal unconscious is a situation where an event has been conscious only for a time but have disappeared, due to the lack of interest in it or the sensory input has not properly fired. Or it could basically be a topographical map which has not formed from a budding neural circuit.

Archetypes

The universal themes is defined as archetypes by Carl Jung. Archetypes are basically certain events, figures, motifs(a picture or pattern).

Collective unconscious is something that has never been in consciousness and never been individually acquired. As mentioned above it’s mostly inherited from ancestors or to be more precise certain perceptions of archetypes are passed on in genetics.

The archetypes are actualised when they enter consciousness and express themselves as images or certain behaviour based on our interaction with the outside world. Archetypes are more of an subjective entity. It forms without content, representing merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action.

These ideas might be seemingly a bit confusing, but when you deeply introspect certain events and behaviours, you could identify how other people would have gone through similar paths of self-discovery or learning to react in certain situations or behave in a certain way thereby creating biologically similar topographical maps in their brain. So this is one angle to think of why and how do our thoughts or actions sync.

It is absurd when we think of natural events or occasions that are not in our control but still take place in sync. And the interesting thing is that, we have a gut feeling of it happening in a specific way before it even happens. This is not scientifically explainable and we can’t pinpoint certain aspects of our mind that leads to this, so no one can prove anything. The instincts and gut feelings maybe due of the collective experiences and unconscious influences that have taken place over the course of time in one’s life.

Some people link the concept of synchronicity with dreams. Because certain dreams are basically the manifestation of the repressed instincts and thought process which naturally has the tendency to influence the conscious mind and create a neural circuitries that may form gut feeling that is due to previous interaction with environmental cues, collective experiences and emotions.

There is also a physics angle to synchronicity, famous physicists and researchers believe that quantum entanglement (where two or more particles become linked in such a way that their states are interdependent, regardless of their distance with which they are apart. This means that a change in the state of one entangled particle will instantaneously affect the state of the other, even if they are separated by vast distances) could be the reason behind the whole collective unconsciousness and synchronicity, but further research is being carried out.

To conclude, collective unconscious is not a completely obscure topic as certain events and behavioural patterns can be foreseen by understanding and studying the human evolution and the human mind. In this post I have covered some of the popular ideas of sociologists, scientists and psychologists and added my perspective on how they can be scientifically explained by studying the human mind and brain.

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